This invention relates to an auto-bracketing system for exposure variations to be provided on a camera capable of executing consecutive advance photographing based upon the results of multi-area (i.e., multi-section) metering, and more particularly to an auto-bracketing system with which exposure conditions for individual frames of a film during consecutive advance photographing can be made different from each other in accordance with the subject's brightness as determined by the multi-area (multi-section) metering.
Cameras are generally provided with photometers to provide an optimum exposure value Ev dependent upon the brightness of a subject which is required for exposure control. There are various types of such photometers possible, of which a multi-area (multi-section) metering system utilizing a plurality of optical sensors for photomerry is considered as desirable since it is capable of measuring the brightness of a subject accurately.
Also, recent cameras have been equipped with a motor built in the camera body to automatically wind the film and further to make it possible to consecutively photograph the same subject on a series of multiple frames by winding the; film with this motor. Some of such cameras capable of executing the consecutive advance photographing are further capable of photographing individual frames in different exposure conditions to provide a plurality of pictures slightly different from each other in their exposure conditions. Disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication SH061-148437 is one of such cameras, in which auto-bracketing is accomplished by feeding an estimated correction value to an exposure control unit every time an exposure operation for one frame is finished, and in which a predetermined number can be preset so that a photographing operation, including a series of exposure operations is finished when the preset number of frames are respectively exposed.
However, in the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication SH061-148437 and in other similar conventional systems, it is only possible to execute auto-bracketing in a plurality of exposure values determined by the addition of an estimated correction value to the optimum exposure value given by the multi-area (i.e., multi-section) metering. There are no systems which execute auto-bracketing during consecutive advance photographing, in a plurality of exposure conditions which are determined in dependence upon the brightness which have been sensed by a plurality of sensors built into a photometer.